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edward-mckeown
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  		   Posted 11/15/2007 8:51 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Well I had my first bad review...this should hurt but oddly did not.  I realized that :
1) The short was published in print in anthology
2) I won first prize
3) it came with a nice check
4) I actually like "Scooby doo" which the reviewer compared my work to.
 
So in short he only got to review it becuase it was out there. It hurt a lot less than a rejection of a piece where no one sees it.
 
Now the reviewer may be right and it might suck ( I don't think so but my thinking that doesn't make me right and him wrong) but he can still, in the words of my hero, Bender, of Futurama fame, "Kiss my shiny metal @ss."
 
Profound thought for the day
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von Darkmoor
Small Press Publisher (and Dancer still)



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  		   Posted 11/16/2007 12:39 AM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
soundly reasoned - perfectly rational - but it still sucks. go cash your check and whistle the tune to Scooby Doo all the way to the bank!

~~~~~~~~~~
Jason M. Waltz
Fantasy Acquisitions Editor Staffs & Starships Magazine
Anthology Editor Flashing Swords
~~~~~~~~~~
Ever waltz with the Devil? Visit von Darkmoor's thoughts to find out (and read a review or two).
~~~~~~~~~~
Critical Eye of the Dragon Avatar courtesy of crystalwizard

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Firlefanz
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  		   Posted 11/16/2007 2:45 AM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Sorry to hear about the bad review. Still, you have quite good reasons to shrug it off. :-)

So - congrats on getting the story out in print!

- Call me Firle.

Hannah Steenbock

Mystical Adventures
Sphaira

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MichaelEhart
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  		   Posted 11/16/2007 4:08 AM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Print it out, frame it, and hang it in the bathroom.
 
It happens.
 
I got a bad review a few weeks ago from Tangent. Funny thing was, the story was a reprint, and the first time around they raved about it.
 
Made it much easier to take because that same day I got the foreword to Servant of the Manthycore from Michael Moorcock, which was very complimentary. I read the bad review, and was smiling the whole time, 'cause , you know, Dude, Michael Moorcock likes my stuff :)
 
Learned a long time ago that the only real critic who counts is yourself. You liked the story, then it was good. An editor liked it well enough to send you a few shekels? Even better. That means a reader or two got to enjoy it, too.
Everybody wins.

Buy my book!
The Servant of the Manthycore available Nov. 17th from DEP
Illustrated by Rachel Marks, with an introduction by Michael Moorcock
Read me in 2007!
"The View From the Shotglass Floor" Ray Gun Revival, Feb 2007
"Voice of the Spoiler" The Sword Review, June 2007
"Servant of the Manthycore" The Sword Review, July 2007
"Darkling I Listen; and for Many a Time" Fear and Trembling, coming soon!
"Weaving Spiders Come Not Here" The Sword Review, August 2007
"Six Zombies Doing That Mick Jagger Strut" Damned in Dixie, Summer 2007
"Nothing But Our Tears" The Sword Review, September 2007
"Night of Shadows, Night of Knives" Magic and Mechanica, Fall 2007
"The Scarlet Colored Beast" The Sword Review, October 2007
"The Stars by Law, Forbidden" Unparalleled Journeys II, November 2007
"Who Comes for the Mother's Fruit" Every Day Fiction, November 2007
"Stand, Stand, Shall They Cry" Flashing Swords, November 2007
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nathan
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  		   Posted 11/16/2007 1:18 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
I liked my first bad review so much I carry it around on my tag line. Congrats on your win. As long as you don't go the Scrappy Doo route and stay old school--Scooby Doo is a damn fine place to be.

Damnit.

VIEW IMAGE
"Writing the wet dreams of teenage boys" - Lindsey Llyod, Tangent Reviews
 
Tarantino himself has been forward and unapologetic about his influences. In a 1994 interview with Empire magazine, he said, "I steal from every single movie ever made. If people don't like that, then tough tills, don't go and see it, all right? I steal from everything. Great artists steal, they don't do homages."

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Lyn
Yep, I Muck



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  		   Posted 11/16/2007 1:53 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Is the review online anywhere? I'd like to read it. (Don't take that the wrong way, lol.)

Lyn from ResAliens

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edward-mckeown
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  		   Posted 11/16/2007 5:56 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Thanks for the kind words group but Mike your story about Tangent does put it all in perspective that cheered me immensely.
 
I will indeed stay true to the Scooby spirit and indeed I aspired (albeit in the Buffyverse) to Scoby status ;-)
 
The review is online somewhere, dont' be surprised that I didn't book mark it but if you put my name and review in google well heck that's how I found it.
 
It's nice to have a group of people who understand. 

www.sfwa.org/members/mckeown/
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crystalwizard
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  		   Posted 11/16/2007 9:33 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Doesn't Scooby always capture the bad guy, and come out on top? Not to mention make a lot of money when turned into a movie because so many people go to see it?
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edward-mckeown
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  		   Posted 11/16/2007 11:24 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Scooby doo forever!!!

www.sfwa.org/members/mckeown/
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ScrewMoonshine
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  		   Posted 11/17/2007 1:58 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
von Darkmoor said...
soundly reasoned - perfectly rational - but it still sucks. go cash your check and whistle the tune to Scooby Doo all the way to the bank!


Isn't that one more than a little difficult to whistle? I'd recommend either "We're in the Money" or, to stick to the Saturday Morning Cartoon motif, the theme to "Spider-Man".

Robert Orme
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Thirdy Lopez
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  		   Posted 11/17/2007 8:59 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
You can't please everyone, Ed.  At least the editor obviously liked your story.  Why else would he include it in the anthology? ;-)

Aurelio Rico Lopez III aka "Thirdy" has had fiction featured in COLD FLESH (Hellbound Books), THE BLACKEST DEATH I, II, and III (Black Death Books), SPORTY SPEC: GAMES OF THE FANTASTIC (Raven Electrick Ink), STAR-SPANGLED ZOMBIE (Maniac Press), RAW MEAT (Sideshow Press), SHADOW BOX (Brimstone Press), TRIP THE LIGHT HORRIFIC (RAGE machine Books), DEAD MEN (AND WOMEN) WALKING (Bards and Sages), and THE BOOK OF SHADOWS VOL. I (Brimstone Press).  His poems have appeared in Mythic Delirium, Star*Line, Dark Animus, Goblin Fruit, Scifaikuest, Electric Velocipede, Sybil's Garage, The Horror Express, Down In the Cellar, and elsewhere.

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Frank Menser
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  		   Posted 11/18/2007 6:10 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Hey take the good when you get it. As for the review...well there is the thought that any publicity is good publicity...and it means someone actually read it besides the Ed which (from what I have seen) is not all that easy to accomplish!

~Frank

Trashed Cat Publications...home of SIDEWAYS THRU TIME
                                                THE BARD BUSINESS
                                                 ORPHANED EPICS
 
 

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edward-mckeown
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  		   Posted 11/18/2007 9:10 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Hmmnnn it works for Paris Hilton...why not me? ;-)

www.sfwa.org/members/mckeown/
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Gustavo
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  		   Posted Yesterday 12:51 AM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Congrats on getting the story published, and on first place... My last story reviewed was called "a silly little story" and they didn't even compare it to Scooby, so the review was also a win!
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RHFay
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  		   Posted Yesterday 12:00 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.

I'm with Thirdy on this one.  The editor liked the story enough to print it, so obviously someone thought it was good.

You definitely can't please everyone.  There will always be certain people who, for whatever reason, just don't like a particular story.  Tastes, and opinions, differ.  And, ultimately, a review is really only one person's opinion.

Look at it this way - the reviewer took the time to read your story and write a review.  That's more than a lot of stories get.

"I'm going to do what the warriors of old did. I'm going to recite poetry!" Andrew of Armar.
 
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Hamstersbane
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  		   Posted Yesterday 12:37 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Well, congrats on getting it printed and read...as for the bad review, I'd just try to shrug and remember how subjective these things are. I'm having to learn that one lately myself.

Jeff Parish
Jennings Grove, an online horror serial novel
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edward-mckeown
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  		   Posted Yesterday 2:50 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Actually overall it has been a good year for publications in numbers of articles and shorts published, now money... well let's just not go there.
Happy Thanksgiving all

www.sfwa.org/members/mckeown/
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David de Beer
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  		   Posted 11/24/2007 4:30 AM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
bad reviews are like the scars you pick up going through life, shows you put in the time and effort. Gives a writer character yeah

www.livejournal.com/users/david-de-beer
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RHFay
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  		   Posted 11/24/2007 11:18 AM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
edward-mckeown said...
Actually overall it has been a good year for publications in numbers of articles and shorts published, now money... well let's just not go there.
Happy Thanksgiving all

I don't think many of us are really in it for the money.  I think I've made about $50-$60 in poetry and art sales thus far this year.
 
Yep, I must be in this for the sense of accomplishment, because I'm certainly not in it for the money.
 
If you're having a good year overall, then the bad review is really nothing in the greater scheme of things.  It's just something that will probably happen to a lot of authors as they have more and more material out there.  It's almost, in a strange sort of way, a badge of honour.
 
I think you actually realise this, since in your original post you said it really didn't hurt like it should have.  If that particular reviewer didn't like the piece, then so what?  Critics are often overly critical anyway. 

"I'm going to do what the warriors of old did. I'm going to recite poetry!" Andrew of Armar.
 
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crystalwizard
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  		   Posted 11/24/2007 5:56 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
>I don't think many of us are really in it for the money.

If that's the case, i'm going the wrong way! Why didn't someone tell me you're supposed to make money off this industry?

Never meddle in the affairs of a wizard unless you are soggy and hard to light!



Managing Editor of Flashing Swords

Visit my art gallery on art wanted
All my books in print

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edward-mckeown
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  		   Posted 11/24/2007 5:58 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Well. if you want to make money you could do what my wife does, an artist, no wait that sucks financially too...
Now why is it we are doing this to ourselves... ;-)

www.sfwa.org/members/mckeown/
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David de Beer
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  		   Posted 11/24/2007 6:05 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
we like the pain, it is good and nice, gives me shivers of delight with every new frustration I hit or project that doesn't come together. I live for those moments.

www.livejournal.com/users/david-de-beer
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RHFay
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  		   Posted 11/24/2007 8:15 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
edward-mckeown said...
Well. if you want to make money you could do what my wife does, an artist, no wait that sucks financially too...
Now why is it we are doing this to ourselves... :wink:

I'm both a writer and an artist.  I must really want to torture myself! smilewinkgrin

"I'm going to do what the warriors of old did. I'm going to recite poetry!" Andrew of Armar.
 
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Craig Smith
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  		   Posted 11/25/2007 11:47 AM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Congrats on winning the prize and getting it in print. If 5 people read the same thing all of them will like it less or more than each other. I guess it is just how things work :).

My Blog: http://the-red-stone.blogspot.com/
Silver Streak at http://www.writersstories.com
Falling in The Ethereal Gazette: Issue Four www.lulu.com/content/255939
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edward-mckeown
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  		   Posted 11/25/2007 12:06 PM (GMT -5)    Quote This PostAlert An Admin About This Post.
Hey Craig I like that book cover!

www.sfwa.org/members/mckeown/
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